The present invention relates to paper input and output trays for computer driven printers, and, more particularly, for inkjet printers.
Inkjet printers have been provided with permanently attached paper input trays which necessarily give the printer a larger footprint during shipping thus requiring larger containers than are required for printers having detachable paper input trays.
Printer paper input and output trays are regularly accessed by the printer operator and may be removable or permanently attached trays. The former are removed from the printer whenever the paper supply is exhausted for refilling with a stack of cut sheet paper. Printers with removable trays occupy a smaller footprint and therefore can be shipped in smaller containers but they have other drawbacks. Removable trays usually have a spring biased pusher plate beneath the paper stack for urging paper upwardly toward the printer feed rollers which remove one sheet at a time from the stack. Repeated removal, loading and reinstallation of the paper tray in the printer is a relatively easy task provided that care is taken to properly remove the tray, load the paper and reinstall the tray. Despite ordinary precautions, through repeated usage, removable paper trays, and the parts thereon such as the pusher plate and particularly the parts thereof that connect the tray to the printer, are subject to wear and eventual breakage.
Similarly, paper output trays are ordinarily easily removable trays which are hung on the front of the printer with plastic hooks or the like which are subject to breakage. Particularly in printers such as inkjet printers which apply print to the paper using wet ink, paper curl which usually takes place about the long center axis of the paper is also a problem.
Accordingly, a semi-permanently attached paper tray system for a printer such as an inkjet printer is desired which, after installation by the user, is intended to remain in place on the printer even during paper loading so as to minimize the frequency of tray removal and attendant breakage. Both trays of the system should still be removable when desired without special tools and both trays should be easily accessible, preferably from the front of the printer, whereby paper can be loaded into the input tray without removal of either the paper input tray or the paper output tray. The paper input tray preferably should have no moving parts.